LV Review-Journal 6-19-1990

“Las Vegas Review-Journal” Tuesday June 19, 1990 Page 8B

Source in Channel 8’s UFO series pleads guilty to pandering charge

A Las Vegas man who was a major source for a local TV documentary on UFOs made a reluctant guilty plea in District Court Monday to a felony charge of pandering.

Bob Lazar, with some coaxing from a deputy district attorney, admitted that he had recruited a local known prostitute and encouraged her to solicit customers.

Lazar was the focal point for much of KLAS-TV, Channel 8 reporter George Knapp’s award winning series, “UFO: The Best Evidence.” Lazar spent much of the program claiming that the U.S. government was testing alien spacecraft at the Nevada Test Site.

During his plea, Lazar at first only admitted that he had helped “modernize” the business of prostitute Toni Bulloch by doing some computer work.

When District Judge Jack Lehman asked prosecutor John Lukens if that admission would satisfy the state, Lukens replied that it wouldn’t. Lukens then detailed how Lazar operated Bulloch’s business at the Newport Cove apartments on Tamarus Street and Lazar eventually concurred.

The charge carries a sentence of one to six years, with a possible fine of $5,000. Probation will also be an option when Lazar is sentenced on Aug. 6.

According to police records, Lazar met Bulloch as a customer. At one meeting, they talked for several hours about UFOs and Lazar told her he had master’s degrees from two universities.

The records show that Lazar later helped Bulloch in setting up the business, that he did indeed keep computer records of customers, and that he took at least a 50 percent share of her fees. Lazar was also interested in recruiting other women into the operation, the records state. Bulloch was arrested in April on several prostitution-related charges, but she cooperated with police by telling them of Lazar’s involvement in the operation.

She was finally charged with keeping a disorderly house, a misdemeanor statute dating back to 1911. Lukens said a prostitution could not be proved against the woman.

Police said Lazar videotaped customers and maintained records of their license plate numbers. Two of the Newport Cove apartments were connected with a hole cut through a wall.

Customers were photographed in a waiting room, but no videos were taken in the “trick rooms” Lukens said. Authorities said there was no evidence to suggest that Lazar might have been using the information for blackmailing purposes.